Fawn Hall

Born in Annandale, Virginia, in 1959, Hall graduated from Annandale High School in 1977. She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in high school. After graduating, she began working full-time for the Navy at the Pentagon.{{Cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Carla |last2=Kastor |first2=Elizabeth |date=1987-02-24 |title=The Afternoon of a Fawn |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/02/25/the-afternoon-of-a-fawn/ee0f2954-15ec-4a3d-a088-7a3bbbba4f08/ |access-date=2024-02-19 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}

In 1987, Hall lived in Annandale, with her mother and stepfather.{{Cite news |last=Schneider |first=Keith |last2= |first2= |date=1987-02-26 |title=Fawn Hall Steps Into the Limelight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/26/world/fawn-hall-steps-into-the-limelight.html |access-date=2024-02-19 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963707,00.html | title=Fawn Hall: Oliver North's Angel | magazine=Time | date=March 9, 1987 }}

Hall was detailed from the Navy to work at the National Security Council on February 26, 1983, as Oliver North's secretary. She worked for North until she was fired on November 25, 1986, at the height of the scandal.[https://web.archive.org/web/20131217203020/http://articles.philly.com/1987-02-25/news/26180694_1_iran-contra-fawn-hall-iran-affairs Meet Iran Affair's 'Mystery Woman'], The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 1987. Hall's mother, Wilma Hall, was secretary to Robert McFarlane,Reeves, Richard. President Reagan: Triumph of Imagination. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2005, p. 367. Reagan's national security advisor, North's superior and a major player in the Iran–Contra affair.

In one mishap, Hall transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being credited to a Swiss businessman's bank account instead of the intended account.{{cite web |date=July 22, 1987 |title=Brunei regains $10 millions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/22/world/iran-contra-hearings-brunei-regains-10-million.html |access-date=September 16, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}

In June 1987, Hall, herself, began two days of testimony in front of the United States Congress.{{cite web | url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/profile-hall.php | title=Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs - the Legal Aftermath }} She confessed to altering, shredding a large number of documents (so much was destroyed, she said, that the office shredder jammed), and smuggling others in her boots and inside her clothing and giving them to North on November 25, 1986, who was fired after his role in orchestrating potentially illegal aid to the Nicaraguan Contras became public.[https://web.archive.org/web/20151001223212/http://articles.philly.com/1987-06-09/news/26185616_1_nsc-files-diversion-memo-fawn-hall Hall Details Effort To Hide North's Role Destroyed Documents On Contra Aid], The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9, 1987{{cite news |last1=Morgan |first1=Dan |last2=Pincus |first2=Walter |date=June 10, 1987 |title=Hall Testifies of Necessity 'To Go Above Written Law' |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/scandal/fawnhall.htm |access-date=}} Among her other testimony was an assertion that, "Sometimes you have to go above the law."{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-09-mn-6120-story.html | title=Shredding Not Cover-Up Move, Fawn Hall Says | website=Los Angeles Times | date=June 9, 1987 }} Journalist Bob Woodward recorded that her legal defense justification was summarized in her words: "We shred everything".Bob Woodward: Veil: the Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, p. 501 In 1989, in exchange for her testimony against North for the Iran–Contra affair, she was granted immunity from prosecution.Hall, North Trial Testimony, 3/22/89, pp. 5311–16, and 3/23/89, pp. 5373–80, 5385–87; Chapter 5 Fawn Hall 147

After the Iran–Contra affair broke, Hall briefly went back to work for the Navy in 1987 for less than 6 months. She was invited to the 1987 White House Correspondents' Dinner by journalist Michael Kelly.{{Cite news |last=Green |first=Joshua |date=July 6, 2017 |title=The Remaking of Donald Trump |publisher=Bloomberg News |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-07-06/the-remaking-of-donald-trump |quote=Ever since 1987, when, in the wake of the Iran–Contra scandal, the journalist Michael Kelly brought one of its central figures, Fawn Hall, the documenting-shredding secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North [...]}} After her congressional testimony in June 1987, she left government service and signed with the William Morris Agency{{cite web |date=August 19, 1987 |title=Fawn Hall Signs With Superagent |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-19-vw-679-story.html |access-date=December 27, 2015 |work=Los Angeles Times}} and unsuccessfully pursued a media career in the Washington, D.C., area.

Playboy and Penthouse offered six-figure payments for nude photoshoots to Hall, as well as two other women involved in high-profile 1987 scandals, Donna Rice and Jessica Hahn. Hall and Rice declined all offers, whereas Hahn agreed to appear in Playboy.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/28/arts/celebrities-of-summer-are-cashing-in.html |title=Celebrities of Summer Are Cashing in |work=The New York Times | date=September 28, 1987 |last=Yarrow |first=Andrew L. |access-date=September 16, 2024 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1987/03/06/Fawn-Hall-limits-her-exposure/1723542005200/ | title=Fawn Hall limits her exposure }}{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-05-mn-7893-story.html | title=$500,000 for Posing in Nude? Fawn Hall Says That's Disgusting | website=Los Angeles Times | date=March 5, 1987 }}

In April 1990, Hall was a freelance TV reporter in Pittsburgh.{{cite web |url=https://www.pilotonline.com/2019/04/07/fawn-hall-freelance-reporter-visits-virginia-beach-april-1990/ |title=Fawn Hall, freelance reporter, visits Virginia Beach | April 1990 | date=April 7, 2019 }}

In 1992, Hall worked for a law firm in Los Angeles, California,{{cite web | url=https://www.mcall.com/1992/04/23/fawn-hall-says-she-was-proud-secretary/ | title=Fawn Hall Says She Was Proud Secretary | date=April 23, 1992 }} and she pursued a modeling career for several years.{{cite news |author=Al Kamen |date=April 18, 2012 |title=Catching up with Fawn Hall |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/catching-up-with-fawn-hall/2012/04/18/gIQAipAuRT_story.html |url-status=live |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203031733/http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-18/politics/35452573_1_fawn-hall-book-soup-mark-twain |archive-date=December 3, 2013}} Hall dated the actor Rob Lowe who tracked her down after seeing her at the Oliver North trial,{{cite news |date=2011-03-29 |title=Rob Lowe on his early years as an actor, his friendship with the Sheens and Tom Cruise, and the movie that launched his career, The Outsiders |work=Vanity Fair |publisher= |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/03/rob-lowes-early-years-press |access-date=}} and the couple attended Jack Lemmon's AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 1988.{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Lowe |date=2011 |title=Stories I Only Tell My Friends |location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |page=81 |isbn=978-0-8050-9329-2}}

In April 1993, Hall married Danny Sugerman, former manager of The Doors.{{cite web |date=April 12, 1993 |title=Fawn Hall to wed author Sugarman |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=19930412&id=E_QaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rUcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6681,2198492 |access-date= |website=Daily News}} The Sugermans lived in the Hollywood Hills. She was a cocaine user when she held jobs on the National Security Council staff and at the Pentagon.{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-04-mn-2676-story.html | title=Fawn Hall Reportedly Admits Cocaine Use when at NSC | website=Los Angeles Times | date=June 4, 1989 }} It was reported that Sugerman introduced Hall to crack cocaine shortly after their marriage. She became addicted and suffered a non-lethal overdose in 1994, following which she went into rehab. Sugerman died in 2005 of lung cancer, and in 2007 Hall listed the house for sale for almost $2.5 million,{{cite web|url=http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2007/02/fawns-swan-song.html|title=The Real Estalker: Fawn's Swan Song|date=February 7, 2007|access-date=December 27, 2015}} and in 2014, it was acquired for only $1.96 million.{{cite web | url=https://therealdeal.com/la/2016/02/22/former-weho-home-of-doors-manager-danny-sugerman-listed-for-3-5m/ | title=Steve Sugerman Los Angeles | 9306 Warbler Way | date=February 23, 2016 }}

As of 2012, Hall was living in West Hollywood, working at a bookstore{{cite web | url=https://www.visitwesthollywood.com/stories/west-hollywood-legacies-book-soup/ | title=West Hollywood Legacies: Book Soup | date=March 2, 2020 }} and staying out of the public eye.

{{reflist}}

• Hall, North Trial Testimony, 3/22/89, pp. 5311–16, and 3/23/89, pp. 5373–80, 5385–87; [https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_05.htm Chapter 5 Fawn Hall 147]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130808191018/http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/ Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters Volume I] - Investigations and Prosecutions: Lawrence E. Walsh, Independent Counsel, August 4, 1993; Washington, D.C.

• {{IMDb name|2536004}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Fawn}}

Category:1959 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women civil servants

Category:Annandale High School alumni

Category:Iran–Contra affair

Category:People from Annandale, Virginia

Category:Reagan administration personnel

Category:Secretaries